The price to pay
by ShadowDianne
Summary: You live in a world where magic exists, however, you must sacrifice a memory in order to cast a spell. The more memories, or the more precious a memory, the more powerful the magic. You just woke up with no memory save a name. Asked by pressuredrightnow via tumblr


A/N As always give me a magic infused prompt and my mind goes anywhere but probably towards the easiest answer for it! Xd

The price to pay

Regina blinked owlishly as she regained her senses, her hands grabbing weakly the sheets that covered her -as she quickly checked- clothed body. Frowning, the woman looked around her, to the soft lights that illuminated the corners of the room in golden shadows that seemed to pool around the bed she was currently resting in from the windowless walls that only made her frown even more deeply. Feeling disoriented she looked around, her head pounding slightly with the movement alone.

Touching the roof of her mouth she could feel the cupric taste of blood mixed with something else her mind didn't provide.

" _Ritual."_

Some part of her seemed to whisper, an echo she quickly suffocated as she tried to make something from her surroundings; A place she had the distinct impression she was supposed to know even though she didn't. Feeling slightly more panicked now than sluggish she reached for something else than the white sheets or the black and blue clothes she wore underneath. Her eyes fell into a framed photo, one she quickly picked up with trembling fingers as her eyes adjusted to the image, one she didn't know what to think about.

A family of three, perhaps, a young boy flanked by two women, a brunette and a blonde. The fog on her mind seemed to clear for a second as she focused on the second one, something on the warm green eyes the picture showed enough to drag a name out of her lips.

"Emma."

Suddenly, a crash startled her. Kneeling on the mattress and quickly turning towards the sound she found herself facing the very same woman of the picture holding what seemed to be trail of food and something that seemed to be shyness glowing on those very same irises she had been looking at mere seconds before.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were awake. Belle said that you could take longer… seems that you are even more stubborn than we thought, uh?"

The words, ended in a somehow soft smile eased up Regina's fear for a second before the previous confusion settled back in. Glancing at the picture she still held between her fingers she noticed a small ring in one of them, a gem glinting softly under the lights that somehow seemed to glow brighter than a few seconds before.

"You... Emma?"

The name again, a name that almost seamed foreign on the way her mouth worked around it, her tongue still feeling way to big into the cavity of her mouth but it still seemed to be the only thing her mind was able to focus on. The blonde nodded slowly before approaching her, leaving the trail on the spot the picture had formerly stood. Long, nimble fingers splayed next to where Regina was seated, two of them picking on a piece of the sheets fabric, pinching and kneading it as Emma sat, staring at her and full bottom lip trapped between her teeth. A detail Regina's eyes seemed unable to look away from as she, somehow, waited.

"I… yes, I'm Emma." The blonde finally said, eyes soft but somehow fearful, long tresses cascading down her shoulders and for a second Regina was lost on the reflection of one of the lights she could see running down one of them, as a silver line, before she looked back at her. "You are safe, okay? Safe and sound."

The last bit was accompanied by a small quirk of her lips that soon faded as Regina continued staring at her, somehow blankly, probably, the woman considered, taking on Emma's still somewhat worried gaze.

"I know this can sound a little bit strange but… do you remember your name?"

Regina found herself wanting to roll her eyes at such ludicrous question but as she opened her mouth to provide the answer she found herself unable to do it. The fog inside her brain seemed way thicker than before, as some form of trap that prevented her to get that information. Feeling the panic raise inside of her once again she swallowed and shook her head, her fingers clenching on the frame of the photo, a burning feeling running down her fingers for a moment before Emma's surprisingly cold hands covered them, easing her fingers up the picture.

"It's okay, yes? Believe me, it's okay."

"But… what… who I am?!" Regina asked, thousands of questions coming out of her mouth. She could feel energy running around and inside of her as she flinched on the blonde's hold, fear climbing up her throat as she tried to breath out the doubts she could feel swarming inside her brain, one that seemed unable to give her anything but those.

"You are her, Regina." The blonde replied while putting aside her hands, tucking them on her lap as she gently pointed at the picture, towards the brunette that was hugging the opposite side of the boy the blonde was hugging as well. The face that stared back at her-more guarded and less open than the blonde in the picture but still joyful, didn't echo an idea inside her brain but she touched the picture nevertheless, trying to re-link herself with the image of that other woman.

Looking back at the blonde she put the picture aside, her teeth clashing as she tried to speak.

"What happened to me?" She asked, her voice sounded colder, demanding, and the blonde's lips curved as she chuckled softly.

"I guess some things can't be erased, can they?"

Under Regina's silence the blonde nodded once before pinching her nose's bridge. The lights had seemed to dim on their own accord once again and the shadows that the now weaker glow casted on the woman's cheekbones lost Regina for a moment.

"They said that you would start remembering those things once a while had passed, but I will try to explain it as well as possible, okay?"

Regina nodded; a part of her was still terrified and she wondered inwards why she hadn't done anything more drastic to the blonde in front of her. However, another part told her to wait and for that she seated as poised as possible as the pounding above her right ear seemed to get quiet for a second.

"There was a ritual." The blonde started, her eyes growing glazed, almost pained. "A lot of potions you… well, you did tell me what they were but you know… well, you knew how bad I am at remembering those, always better at attack spells."

The last bit was muttered in a self-deprecating tone that died down the second the thought was out and with a shook of her head the blonde kept speaking, part of her hair falling now around her face, almost obscuring her features as she spoke.

The words ripped through Regina's foggy brain, creating purple-hued shadows of symbols and words her tongue rolled around silently inside her mouth.

"Magic." She said, earning a nod from the blonde.

"Yeah, and then you took that last potion and gave the other one to Henry, then you…"

"Henry?" Regina asked, the name brought her the same impression Emma had done although it seemed weaker, as if the same claw curled around her name was hiding that one as well.

"Yes, he…" Emma pointed meekly at the picture lying next to Regina, the eyes of the teenaged boy looking back at the brunette as she looked as well.

He seemed sweet and vivacious, with warm eyes and a chin that made Regina look at the blonde's picture version with wondering eyes before she glanced quickly at the waiting figure of the real blonde; from the now jittery attitude to the way she kept playing with her fingers, touching her knuckles time and again, as if counting.

"I tried to talk you out of it, say that there must be another way, but you told me that there wasn't so… you lighted the fire and there was a lot of purple magic I couldn't look through it until it cleared out and then you were there."

"My memories… I paid the price." The words felt strange but the knowledge behind them didn't and for a second Regina stared at the woman as her lips parted into a grateful smile.

"Yes, exactly. Belle said that your magic was something inherently linked to you so we didn't need to worry about that front. Seems she was right."

The name, alongside with the rambled answer, didn't take hold into Regina's mind but the information implicitly hidden behind did. Magic was something powerful and dangerous, something that didn't give without taking. Suffering memory losses wasn't strange to magic practitioners but being completely unable to focus on anything but a single name? The thought alone on what kind of spell or deal responsible for that made Regina want to shiver. Even if all she could do at the moment was just sit around and watch.

"You said that I gave a potion to… him." She said before pointing towards the boy of the picture, some sort of longing installing inside her chest. "Why?"

The blonde sighed as she covered her eyes with one of her hands. On her hand, Regina noted, there wasn't a ring and she looked quickly at the picture, noticing the gentle energy that seemed to cover the little group. Something that in any other circumstances she could have probably realized before but now with the fog that still reigned inside of her.

"Henry… he is… he is our son." Emma finally answered, her teeth biting her bottom lip once again as she swallowed quickly what seemed to be an explanation Regina suddenly didn't feel like having. "He was attacked yesterday and you… well, things looked pretty bad."

The blonde's voice felt chocked up and Regina moved ever so slightly, taking the hand of the blonde that wasn't out of her reach. Around the wrist the blonde's sported a faded and worn out cord she caressed with her thumb, earning something close to a sigh.

"Then you said that there was a way to cure him. I tried to tell you to do something else but… well, as I said you are stubborn."

Regina's mind didn't give her any more answers than the ones the blonde was telling her but the pull of energy she had felt before felt stronger now and her mind grabbed onto it, in the purple sparks she almost could see jumping just a millimetre below her skin. Magic, she thought, the idea resonating stronger inside of her than before; she had magic.

And Emma as well, she realized, noticing the dirty white sparks that suddenly illuminated the irises of the woman as the lights inside the room grew bolder.

"You told me that there was a chance that most of you were… gone once you woke up. And then…"

Regina licked her lips, feeling them parched. The movement itself brought Emma back from the place she had seemed to fall down and she stretched herself towards the trail she had entered at first to begin with, a glass of water was soon offered to Regina who took it, noticing the difference of the room's temperature the second her hands and Emma's stopped touching.

"And is he… well?" Regina asked after drinking, the water scratching down her throat once she swallowed. Twisting her lips due to the feeling she looked at the glass, one of her thumbs dancing idly at the edge of it, her nail pressing the surface of one of its walls until the whole finger felt numb.

She saw the look of worry and hope washing over Emma's eyes as well as the sadness as she realized that the question, albeit genuine, didn't come from a supposed mother asking about her son. Feeling tired Regina drank for a second time, the glint of the ring on her finger catching her attention once again.

"He is resting." Emma finally said, making Regina look up from her hand. "He still needs to open his eyes for more than a few minutes but you said that Reul Ghorm never did her deals half-cooked so we are hopeful."

"Reul Ghorm." Regina repeated, the name pulling something inside of her as she tried to not get her tongue twisted on the syllables of the name.

"Yeah, you said it was her the one you wanted to make a deal with."

Regina hummed, unable to say anything else. The ring on her hand glinted as she handed the blonde the glass which she promptly placed back on the trail.

"How is that I remember you?" She asked, eyes still on the gem for a second longer than it should have. The greenish gem twinkled once before dying. "Your name."

Raising her left hand, she approached to the now still face of the blonde, a blush starting to grow up her neck, spreading fast into her cheeks.

She didn't touch her, not really, but the second her fingers hovered above her skin she felt the magic pull once again, the sparks almost burning down her skin, inside her lungs. The fog inside her mind prevailed but the purple shadows that had been filling it reshaped for a second before disappearing again.

"Regina." Emma warned her, her voice sounding much more tired than before, almost fragile and she realized that there was something there that deeply disturbed her; the notion of weakness shocking her resolve.

"I didn't even know how I looked like but you, your name, that I could remember." She insisted. "Why?"

Her fingers were still hovering, her thumb almost touching the blonde's mouth as it parted under her stare, her eyes losing themselves on the glint of white teeth behind them. She could feel the energy growing stronger again, pulling, pushing her as the same flavour than before filled her mouth. Magic? She licked her own lips as the question came out her mouth for a third time, this time nothing but a whisper, a trail of fire that tickled her mouth before dying into the blonde's.

Suddenly, Emma sighed and the spell broke down into nothing as she moved backwards, standing as tall as she was as she walked towards one of the room's walls, arms crossed in front of her chest. Chest, Regina noticed, was covered in a tank top that somehow seemed familiar even if it wasn't.

Blinking away the last bits of the energy that still clouded her mind and gaze, Regina move towards the edge of the bed, the trousers she wore rustling against the sheets as she tried to stand and frustratingly discovering she felt still far too woozy to try it so.

"You still need to rest." Emma said, tilting her chin towards Regina as if the woman had just proven a point. "I… I will let you sleep."

Regina, however, wasn't going to admit defeat and so she glared at the blonde trying to stand for a second time and managing to do it even if the pounding inside her brain, something she had almost forgotten by now, grew again.

"I won't get any sleep, Emma. Tell me why."

The blonde sighed as she seemed to weigh her options before finally moving closer to the bed, sitting next to the brunette as Regina followed her movement even if now the two of them faced the same wall. With her hands swung over her knees, her long fingers tightly pressed together, the blonde seemed a statue for a second before she spoke again.

"You gave me a ring, one that my mother had apparently given you before the fight against the dark one. You really didn't tell me much. You said that it would help me in case something happened to Henry or you."

Regina glanced at the ring, its power apparent now again as the blonde had become near.

"You said that it would help me to find either of you." Emma kept on. "So when you started the ritual I thought…"

"That by giving it to me I would remember." Regina finished, deducing the logic behind the blonde's acts.

"Yeah, but it seems to have worked out only with one of us."

Regina took of the ring out of her finger and held it in front of her, the lights helpfully growing brighter.

"Thank you." She muttered, noticing for the first time the pendant the blonde had around her neck, the one that was probably canalizing its power in a previous settled charm.

The knowledge of magic came easier to her now, even if she couldn't remember where or who she had acquired such knowledge. Magic, however, always protected itself, no matter what. Sucking on her teeth she peered inside the power she could feel brewing underneath the ring's surface before it smacked her out of it.

 _Always a protection._

The solution, however, came to her the second the blonde muttered it under her breath, so gentle she almost didn't hear it at all.

"It's infused with true love magic."

True love.

Opening her mouth in a perfect "o" Regina blinked before the last piece of the puzzle came into its place.

"I didn't know what it was until I asked Belle." Emma admitted, blush growing on her cheeks once again. "She has been helping a lot, with the whole unleashed dark one and all… she told me it was something that seemed to have been made by him. To my parents. Who knows why."

"But you… didn't told me, before stepping inside the circle, I didn't understand why you were so sure of… it working, you know. Until I asked Belle and you said my name that is."

The quick bursts of words came to an end as Regina reached for the blonde's hands, sudden tenderness filling her chest. She still couldn't remember a single bit, she reflected, but this woman? She could.

"Henry is our son." She said, the thought still strange but somehow true. "I suppose I guessed that with a quick recalibration in case it was needed you would have been able to… find him."

"But you knew already that I would be able to reach you no matter what" Emma replied before making a sound between a huff and a laugh. "Or at least that other you knew it. And I didn't, not until Belle told me."

Regina didn't answer to that, preferring to sit silently next to the blonde woman, hand still grazing hers, writing names and symbols she still wasn't sure what they meant.

"I guess I did." She finally said before moving closer, her lips touching briefly the blonde's cheek, warmth flooding through her the second she did.

 _I guess I did._

* * *

A/N Writing without getting carried away in the world-building is such a pain… Xd So there is a war against the Dark One, there is a fairy we all know well lurking in the shadows, Henry is well but was injured -badly- magic works different, Belle is on the good's side and Snow and Charming are MIA. Yup, that summarizes it.


End file.
